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Preparing the Pygmy Borealis XL hull for fiberglassing

The Pygmy Borealis XL kayak is coming along swimmingly! So far I'm very ahead of pace as I only started about five weeks ago and am only working on it a little bit each night.

I won't have the time to fiberglass the inside of the hull until Saturday, but that's OK because there were still a few small steps that needed to be done before then. Besides, you can't fiberglass the hull in an evening. You need to check on it every hour or so until the "green" stage so that you can properly trim the excess fiberglass. If you wait overnight it will probably be too hard to cut easily.

1. ALTERNATIVE STEP FROM THE OFFICIAL PYGMY MANUAL: I added end pours now instead of later as the Pygmy manual suggests. It just makes it easier. See my previous post. The Mylar dams have now been removed and the end pours look great. Plenty of room to drill a 1/2" hole through later for the toggle lines.

2. I also added some thickened epoxy in the ends and down the hull a foot or two until it flattens out. This will add structure as well as make it easier to fiberglass the inside of the hull later.




3. I sanded the inside of the hull and vacuumed it clean.

4. Finally I've added masking tape all along the #4 panels about an inch above the #3/#4 seam. When I fiberglass the inside I will bring the glass up and over the tape. When the fiberglass reaches the "green" stage I will then run a knife along the glass directly under the tape. Then I can simply pull the tape up and the cut fiberglass will come with it. My experience says that this works more than half the time, but it's a bit of a trick. Sounds easier than it is, but hopefully this time will work well. Fingers crossed!



The manual only says to run one strip of tape, but I think it's easier to do if you cover everything above where the glass will go.


Peace!



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